Hello from Cambodia!
I wanted to let anyone who's checking my blog know that I got here safe and sound. Things have changed here greatly over the past few years. There's much building going on and a lot more cars on the road and even some places people are taking notice of traffic lights! How things have changed. On the other hand there have been a lot of changes for the worse. In many ways, like in the West, the rich are getting richer and poor are getting poorer. The price of living has skyrocketed and those who were finding it hard are finding it even harder before. Land prices are risen by 400% which of course means that less people can afford to have their own land, and so face eviction at the whim of big land ownders or the government.

Things have changed in my family as well. It's great to see how my siblings at home have grown up into intelligent talented young men and women. A couple of them can speak a lot more english now than before so I'm having fun helping them practice. I'm also really thankful that in many ways I've been able to remember much of my cambodian language too. It's still not where it was before, but I'm able to have conversations with people so that's all that matters really. I'm hopefull that it will continue to come back.

I was told the other day more about the project I'm going to be doing while I'm here. Servants/TASK the organisation I work with here is undergoing a great time of transition and really is looking to the future and how the organisation and it's activities might change. Part of that means figuring out who else is in the city helping the urban poor and what they do and where, and then figuring out what gaps aren't being met. So that's my job, I'm going to be meeting with the different NGOs here that work with the Urban poor and find out exactly what communities they work in, what services they are trying to provide, and what they believe the biggest unmet needs are. I think this is something that I can actually help with, as I know how to get around, and it frees up the long-term workers here from having to waste their time waiting for meetings that might or might not happen and such. It also gives me a chance to see more of the bigger picture of what is happening with the urban poor in phnom penh. It's going to be a frustrating job, and I'm sure it won't be finished in the month that I'm here, but I'm hoping to make a good start on it, so that someone else can finish off where I stopped. So if you're the praying type, please pray that I'll be able to get good contacts and get some good info for Servants as they plan for the future.

Alright, that's it for now, I'll try and post more soon,
Michael